I hadn't seen that much of Rutgers until this Saturday, though I was pretty peeved that they were 9-1 with former Pitt commit Gary Nova at QB. Though after watching Nova on Saturday, I suddenly felt a little better about Tino, as Nova is garbage.

It was nice to see Graham and Shannahan both score TD's in their final home game. Typical Pitt, beats the #13 and #18 teams, almost beats #3, and losses to Youngstown State and UConn.

Yeah, Nova holds us back. In fact, quarterbacking in general has held a few of these teams down recently. Even Mike Teel in 2007 was the achilles heel of the team - even if the stats didn't show it. He could throw the deep ball, but that was basically it. His decision making and reads were poor. Nova - prior to the Pittsburgh game - was the only reason why the team wasn't undefeated. He turned the ball over 7 times vs. Kent State (6 INTs) and still the Rutgers defense held them to like 31 points or something - which sounds like a lot (and it is) but when you got a guy turning the ball over every time he touches it, it's pretty remarkable that you can keep it interesting (Steelers fans may have a rough idea of what I'm talking about after the Cleveland game).

Rutgers, like they've been for the last several seasons, are based on running backs - multiple running backs and great defense. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but this team all but shutout the #1 offense in the Big East the week before (they got a field goal with 10 seconds left). I think we were allowing like 11 or 14 points per game or something like that. But historically (well, relevant history - so, in the last 6 years) Rutgers lays an egg right around this time of the year against a team we "should" beat...

Maybe moving to the Big Ten will enhance our chances of recruiting a quarterback...our last big QB snag plays TE for us now...

That was our worst game of the season (worse than the Kent State game), so I know if this is the first and only time you've seen RU then you probably don't think much of the Scarlet Knights but let me assure you...we are slightly better than that...

This team is nothing special, but it's good enough to win the Big East. 9-2 is an overstatement, but we can't really control the mediocrity of the conference we play in...let's hope we can actually be the best of this mediocre bunch on Thursday, win this thing and move on to being a small fish in a big, overrated pond...

KennyTheKangaroo wrote:kenny the kangaroo cant figure out why ian moran continues to defend wanny yet seems to unknowlingly point out all of wannys incompetence. .

btw rutgers really sucks. how the hell are they 9-2?

Because, Wanny was a really good coach and all Pitt faithful got fooled by someone promising national championships / a return to the 70's here. Wanny built really good teams here. His last 2 qbs were just horrible... I don't advocate the firing of him based on that 1 error

KennyTheKangaroo wrote:kenny the kangaroo cant figure out why ian moran continues to defend wanny yet seems to unknowlingly point out all of wannys incompetence. .

btw rutgers really sucks. how the hell are they 9-2?

Because, Wanny was a really good coach and all Pitt faithful got fooled by someone promising nationalBIG EAST championships / a return to the 70's here. Wanny built really good teams here. His last 2 qbs were just horrible... I don't advocate the firing of him based on that 1 error

no pitt fan was asking for a national championship. a simple big east championship would have been quite swell.

but it probably is too much to ask to beat cinci with a 3 touchdown lead

mikey287 wrote:Yeah, Nova holds us back. In fact, quarterbacking in general has held a few of these teams down recently. Even Mike Teel in 2007 was the achilles heel of the team - even if the stats didn't show it. He could throw the deep ball, but that was basically it. His decision making and reads were poor. Nova - prior to the Pittsburgh game - was the only reason why the team wasn't undefeated. He turned the ball over 7 times vs. Kent State (6 INTs) and still the Rutgers defense held them to like 31 points or something - which sounds like a lot (and it is) but when you got a guy turning the ball over every time he touches it, it's pretty remarkable that you can keep it interesting (Steelers fans may have a rough idea of what I'm talking about after the Cleveland game).

Rutgers, like they've been for the last several seasons, are based on running backs - multiple running backs and great defense. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but this team all but shutout the #1 offense in the Big East the week before (they got a field goal with 10 seconds left). I think we were allowing like 11 or 14 points per game or something like that. But historically (well, relevant history - so, in the last 6 years) Rutgers lays an egg right around this time of the year against a team we "should" beat...

Maybe moving to the Big Ten will enhance our chances of recruiting a quarterback...our last big QB snag plays TE for us now...

That was our worst game of the season (worse than the Kent State game), so I know if this is the first and only time you've seen RU then you probably don't think much of the Scarlet Knights but let me assure you...we are slightly better than that...

This team is nothing special, but it's good enough to win the Big East. 9-2 is an overstatement, but we can't really control the mediocrity of the conference we play in...let's hope we can actually be the best of this mediocre bunch on Thursday, win this thing and move on to being a small fish in a big, overrated pond...

Flood must really not trust Nova, because there were so many third and longs on Saturday where they would just run the ball. We were joking in my section that Wanny must have been coaching Rutgers that day

This is a point that kenny the kangaroo wanted to make about Pitt's recruiting and the state of PA:

Looking at this years rivals.com pennsylvania top 10, a grand total of 1 of the top 10 and 4 of the top 20 players in the state have committed to pitt. Considering that Penn State is in purgatory for a few years, that is not good enough.

Looking back at the past few years pitt had 3 in the top 10 and 3 out of the top 20 in 2012. Miraculously, JP holtz was not ranked in the top 20 recruits in pennsylvania.

2011 had just two in the top 20-lafayette pitts and juan price. and pitt got lucky with juan price. Although pitt would have had a few more if not for the wanny/haywood/graham debacle.

2010 which was wannys last year with the team, 0 in the top 10 and 3 in the top 20. it should be noted that pitt ended up with 5 in the top 20 because cullen christian and tom ricketts transferred to pitt from michigan and penn state, respectively.

So in 4 years, pitt has had 14 of a total 80 best recruits out of pennsyvlania. quite frankly if you are pitt you are going to have to recruit your own state better than that. most of the 10 guys that are on the team have contributed...Aaron Donald, Drew Carswell, Lafayette Pitts, Ejuan Price, and Shell have all seen a lot of time. Bisnatoway and Daysean Rippy are getting a redshirt. Cullen Christian and Gonzalez may contribute next year, and Ricketts will certainly contribute when he is healthy.

DudeMan2766 wrote:So I havent looked into it, and I know invites need to go out and such, but with a win by each is it really that close to a WVU-Pitt Pinstripe Bowl as people seem to think?

Guess it would be up to the bowl. Bowls are all about the draw... some smaller bowl might salivate at the idea of such a game. Even if Pitt and WVU have both had disappointing seasons, it would be a fun end to the season.

Even though I would venture a guess that WVU would trounce Pitt, I would enthusiastically endorse the game happening. In fact, I think there should be a clause where if neither Pitt nor WVU made a major bowl, that the Backyard Brawl would be their bowl game. Won't happen, but I think that would be rather sweet.

I really wish I had gone to the Backyard Brawl at least once. But, none of my friends ever wanted to go and I didn't want to deal with my WVU friends if I went with them. It gets old being razzed about your team. Especially when very rarely do I do it to other people.

Rylan wrote:I really wish I had gone to the Backyard Brawl at least once. But, none of my friends ever wanted to go and I didn't want to deal with my WVU friends if I went with them. It gets old being razzed about your team. Especially when very rarely do I do it to other people.

kenny the kangaroo would never consider going to morganhole for the brawl, but it was certainly worth going to at heinz.

mikey287 wrote:Yeah, Nova holds us back. In fact, quarterbacking in general has held a few of these teams down recently. Even Mike Teel in 2007 was the achilles heel of the team - even if the stats didn't show it. He could throw the deep ball, but that was basically it. His decision making and reads were poor. Nova - prior to the Pittsburgh game - was the only reason why the team wasn't undefeated. He turned the ball over 7 times vs. Kent State (6 INTs) and still the Rutgers defense held them to like 31 points or something - which sounds like a lot (and it is) but when you got a guy turning the ball over every time he touches it, it's pretty remarkable that you can keep it interesting (Steelers fans may have a rough idea of what I'm talking about after the Cleveland game).

Rutgers, like they've been for the last several seasons, are based on running backs - multiple running backs and great defense. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but this team all but shutout the #1 offense in the Big East the week before (they got a field goal with 10 seconds left). I think we were allowing like 11 or 14 points per game or something like that. But historically (well, relevant history - so, in the last 6 years) Rutgers lays an egg right around this time of the year against a team we "should" beat...

Maybe moving to the Big Ten will enhance our chances of recruiting a quarterback...our last big QB snag plays TE for us now...

That was our worst game of the season (worse than the Kent State game), so I know if this is the first and only time you've seen RU then you probably don't think much of the Scarlet Knights but let me assure you...we are slightly better than that...

This team is nothing special, but it's good enough to win the Big East. 9-2 is an overstatement, but we can't really control the mediocrity of the conference we play in...let's hope we can actually be the best of this mediocre bunch on Thursday, win this thing and move on to being a small fish in a big, overrated pond...

Mikey287,

I was at the Rutgers-Pitt game last Saturday and couldn't help but wonder...what exactly has happened with Savon Huggins? I know he was very highly touted as a true freshman and played a decent deal last year. It seems like he hasn't factored into the offense as much this year. I haven't followed Rutgers that closely this year so I wasn't sure what was going on with him.

He got hurt last year and this year I think. So he's been a little banged up. When Jamison was hurt, Huggins stepped in and carried the ball 41 times a few weeks ago. So he can play, it's just that Jamison has been really good in his own right. Huggins is about as good of a recruit as we've captured and he seems to be doing and saying all the right things and just waiting for his opportunity. Which should come soon enough. If we had two RBs that could carry it 30 times each, we wouldn't leave games up to our brutal QB (the venerable Super Nova) - tongue-in-cheek, but I'm still sore after yesterday's brutal loss.

So, Huggins is firmly the #2, but there's no reason to take the ball out of Jamison's hands...he gets like 25-30 touches per game and gets like 5 yards per touch. I have to imagine that ranks highly in the Big East, just at face value. So it's not like Huggins is the #2 to some schlub...Huggins is a year younger, so he'll get his time. Also, with RBs running back depth, players seem to just disappear and re-appear now and again. Mason Robinson, for instance, I recall being a running back for us a few years ago...then he became a defensive back after losing his RB spot and now he seems to mostly return punts...Kordell Young is another one that seemed to show a couple flashes and then poof...gone. So who knows...maybe one of them is our starting QB next year...

Rylan wrote:I really wish I had gone to the Backyard Brawl at least once. But, none of my friends ever wanted to go and I didn't want to deal with my WVU friends if I went with them. It gets old being razzed about your team. Especially when very rarely do I do it to other people.

kenny the kangaroo would never consider going to morganhole for the brawl, but it was certainly worth going to at heinz.

I've been to BYB's at old Mountaineer field, Puskar Stadium, and old Pitt Stadium (Never at Heinz). I can't imagine a more intense environment than what I witnessed at old Mountaineer Field. (1979). The games at Puskar are great, Pitt Stadium was OK, but I just can't imagine a more sterile environment for that game than Hienz

KennyTheKangaroo wrote:btw the fan is saying that the brawl in the bronx is highly unlikely

Team is going to finish 6-6 and it's a shame because they should be 9-3 if they didn't blow the game against Notre Dame and play down to YSU and UConn.

People love to hate Tino and while he isn't a big time Qb, he was solid this year. 3000 yards with 19 TD's and 2 INT's. Biggest complaint I have with him is him taking to many sacks and not throwing the ball away enough.

Who starts next year? I hope they give Chad Voytik a chance. He's been in the system a year so he has had a chance to learn it and the kid could be a really good QB.